Ever come across a recipe calling for bouquet garni, and you’re not quite sure what it is?  Or every time you want to make a recipe calling for bouquet garni, you are off to the store to get the fresh herbs, or just decide to pass on the recipe?  Then this article is for you 🙂

Boquet garni refers to a little bundle of herbs tied or wrapped together.   These herb bundles are then added to soups, stews, beans, poaching liquids – any dish that will simmer.  And it’s the unmistakable herb combination in the classical French stew boeuf bourguignon.

Buy being bundled together, the herbs can infuse the cooking liquid with delicious aromatic flavours, then be easily removed before serving.

Traditionally, the three herbs that make up a bouquet garni are:  bay leaf, parsley, thyme.

How Do You make Bouquet Garni:

Bouquet garni is traditionally made of fresh herbs, but dried herbs can be substituted in a pinch (see further down).  Most home cooks will use a dried bay leaf with fresh parsley and thyme herbs.  If you have access to fresh bay leaves, all the better!

To make a bouquet garni, gather together:
1 bay leaf (fresh or dried)
6 sprigs parsley (or use 12 parsley stems, and save the greens for another use)
3 sprigs thyme

 

Wrap and tie tightly with cooking string — also called kitchen twine or butcher’s twine.
Alternately, wrap your herbs in cheesecloth, and tie with the twine to make a little pouch.

 

No cooking string, and no cheesecloth?  No problem.
Take a leaf or two off a leek (the greener tougher part that normally gets thrown out works beautifully!)

Cut the leek into long thin strips (think fetuccini noodles here).  Then wrap and tie your bouquet garni herbs with the ‘leek string’.

 

 

Not into wrapping?  Place your herbs in a spice infuser – quick and easy 🙂  And a great time-saving option for the busy cook.

Dried Bouquet Garni

In a pinch, you can substitute dried herbs for fresh.  The flavours won’t be quite the same as using fresh herbs, but in my kitchen it’s a totally viable option.

For a dried bouquet garni, gather together:
1 bay leaf
1 tbsp. dried parsley
1 tsp. dried thyme

If you don’t want little bits of green throughout your finished dish, make a little cheesecloth pouch with the dried herbs, or place them in a spice infuser (check first that your herbs are bigger than the infuser holes).

When using dried, I will just toss the dried herbs in with everything else, and fish out the bay leaves at the end.

Freezing Bouquet Garni 

Frozen herbs work great in a bouquet garni.  To save time on meal prep, you can pre-make bouquet garni herb bundles and freeze them.  Then when you are making a soup or stew, they are ready to pop right into the pot.  That’s the kind of convenience I like 🙂

Make up your bouqet garnis when you have extra herbs on hand, or when the herbs are in season and plentiful.

As we don’t always have celery in the fridge, I will add a celery stalk or a couple of leafy celery sprigs to the bouquet garnis I freeze.  You can customize to what works best in your kitchen.

Growing Bouquet Garni

I like to group herb plantings in the most convenient ways possible, so that I will use them.

Arrange a potted bay laurel, a planter of thyme, and a planter of parsley where you can step out and snip a few sprigs whenever needed.  And if you live in a cold climate, bay laurel makes for a great houseplant through the winter months!

My planters are on our backyard deck that steps out from the kitchen.  I also include a planter of celery (celery is easy to grow in containers), that I can snip a few celery leaves to add to my soups as well.

If there’s anything I haven’t covered that you’d like to know more about, please leave me a comment, and I’ll be happy to answer your questions.   And check out my list of  resources below 🙂

Happy Gardening 🙂
Barb

PS  Check out these posts on growing the herbs in a bouquet garni:
How To Grow Thyme Successfully
Indoor Bay Laurel
How To Fix Yellowing Parsley Leaves